The Challenge
This long-established and successful professional services firm, operating across recruitment, RPO and consulting, had a strong market presence and significant growth ambition. Their marketing function, however, had never been designed to drive metrics, accountability nor commercial impact, and critically, lacked impact on revenue growth.
Marketing had become a service desk. Consultants made requests, the team responded, and activity happened. But there was no clear connection between marketing output and business growth nor revenue generation.
There were no meaningful KPIs, dashboards nor attribution frameworks, which made it difficult to prove ROI nor understand what was really working.
A failed website migration had wiped out 75% of Google visibility, losing 26,000 backlinks and two decades of SEO equity. Bullhorn Automation had been implemented with minimal strategy. Marketing was brand-led, but lacked the digital, MarTech and performance expertise needed to support a complex multi-brand business at scale.
For recruitment leaders, it is a familiar problem. Marketing is busy, but not always effective. Visible, but not always measurable. Helpful, but not always commercial.
The business needed a new operating model.
The Solution
The business knew that the function lacked strategic oversight. They needed an operating model and embedded team, not a traditional agency. They needed to reallocate internal resource to an outsourced model, leveraging marketing channel and recruitment specialists, and combining fractional CMO leadership with end-to-end execution across strategy, brand, SEO, automation, lead generation, data and attribution.
What we did to drive revenue generation:
- Realigned marketing around commercial outcomes, with inbound client opportunities as the primary KPI.
- Introduced analytics, event tracking and KPI dashboards to create visibility across performance and attribution.
- Delivered SEO remediation after a failed website migration damaged Google visibility, backlinks and long-term search equity.
- Rebuilt the website roadmap around performance, conversion pathways and measurable client engagement.
- Created a self-service content and asset library to reduce ad hoc requests.
- Introduced project intake and prioritisation processes, helping marketing focus on the most strategic and revenue-driving activities.
- Transformed the salary guide from an annual project into an always-on demand generation campaign. Introduced lead capture and database marketing across thought leadership activities.
- Audited and redesigned Bullhorn Automation, including lead scoring, consultant alerts, triggered workflows and change management / training.
- Reviewed platform and budget spend across job boards, LinkedIn, marketing and technology to identify savings and improve efficiency.
- Engaged at board-level, owning specific growth strategic initiatives, and delivering accountability at every level.
The result was a joined-up marketing function with strategic leadership, technical expertise, board-level alignment and the ability to prove impact.
The Outcome
Marketing shifted from reactive support to a commercially accountable growth revenue engine. In the first year, they achieved:
- 3,585 client leads delivered.
- 3,837% increase in website actions.
- £1m+ in trackable revenue generated through marketing activity.
- £360k+ saved across job boards and technology.
- 1,446 salary guide leads across the year; 80+ monthly downloads from Google alone.
- 3,990 website events and conversions recorded; 2,598 driven by organic search.
- 60% reduction in ad-hoc marketing requests.
- 88% consultant satisfaction score on intake process.
- 56% increase in investment after the client extended the partnership.
One year on, the client not only renewed the relationship, but they also increased their investment.
“Thrive has transformed how marketing contributes to our business. The effect has been profound — improving lead generation, digital performance, and efficiency, while also shifting internal perspectives. This partnership is now central to our long-term strategy.”
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Group CEO, Multi-brand, multi-service professional services firm
This is what happens when marketing is no longer treated as a support function; it becomes a measurable driver of demand, revenue and long-term business value.
